(no subject)

[frelling_tralk]

I was pretty disappointed with season 4 of The Good Wife in the beginning, it seemed to lack a compelling overarching plot to drive the season, the firm having money problems again felt very played-out, as did Peter's campaign. And what's up with Carey being so under-utilised, did he even see the inside of a courtroom before the mock trail in 414??? The season did pick up a LOT towards the end though, but many of the early and middle episodes definitely weren't among my favourites

Alicia really frustrated me with how she handled being made partner, I couldn't understand why she couldn't just tell Cary that her orders were coming from higher-ups, instead of making it look like she had suddenly become power-hungry as his boss and was arbitrarily deciding to cut his hours and screw over his chances of promotion. I get the feeling that Alicia has too much pride to say that she was still having to follow orders from Diane even after being made a partner, but Cary must have been so confused for her to cut her own hours one minute, and then cut his again the next. I can just imagine how Alicia would have responded if the situations were reversed and Cary was suddenly made her ~boss~, I really thought that she could have been handled things more gracefully, especially as it was such an awkward situation with her knowing that Cary and the other fourth-years all got screwed over after being promised partnership along with Alicia. I mean Alicia clearly did feel awkward about changing the agreed-upon hours, but then never bothered to give any explanation of it being the partners that asked her to cut the hours, so it must have looked to Cary and the others like she was just flexing her boss muscle because she could. Diane was clearly trying to divide the associates, but I was disappointed at how easily Alicia played into her hands

I thought it was interesting that Alicia seems a lot more pragmatic about how the system works and on using her connection to Peter to get ahead, last season she seemed quite taken-aback when she found out from Will that she was more of a Caitlyn than a Martha when it came to getting hired, but now in season 4 she is advising the army lawyer that everyone gets hired based on who they know and there's nothing wrong with that. It seemed like the writers were trying to comment on that though when Peter gets accused of racial bias because of his hiring and promoting white candidates more. Hiring and promoting based on your personal connections does put a lot of perfectly capable people at a very unfair advantage, and the show made a point of having the woman accusing him of racial bias (I can't remember everyone's names now!) looking very unimpressed when Peter hires the army lawyer simply because Alicia asked him too

And Alicia having sexual fantasises of Will after their kiss was a bit overdone at times, but I did think that it was consistent with their relationship in the third season where Alicia mostly seemed in it for the sex and the thrill, while Will always came across to me as the one who was emotionally invested and thinking more long-term of whether he should meet Alicia's kids, while Alicia was genuinally baffled as to why they would even need to discuss that. Ditto her shutting down Will's 'I love you' as swiftly as humanly possible. IMO Alicia just used the kids as an excuse to not go all in with Will, she was never all that into him as a serious prospect in the first place. In fact there was an interesting turnaround with the first half of season 4 seeing Alicia starting to hit Peter up for sex when she fancied a quickie, and Peter was the one hoping for more when he was asking for dates and to renew their vows. (I'm kind of confused as to how that's going to work though when there's been no real discussion of where they see their marriage going from here, and if they're going to be living together again?) For all that Alicia is meant to be seen as torn between the two men, if anything she's the one emotionally withholding from both of them, and the power dynamics are very much in her favour. I loved that the final cliffhanger didn't make it about which man Alicia would choose, but instead it was all about her and Cary meeting up to discuss setting up their own firm together <3 (I'm confused as to why he earlier offered Alicia first billing though, it was all Cary's idea and he's been the one who's recruiting everyone and putting all the work in to get it off the ground??)

I was very unimpressed with the story with Kalinda's husband, that was part of what dragged the early episodes down for me. Late season 3 had suggested that he was quite a dangerous and sinister sort and that Kalinda was really scared of him, but season 4's casting was way off-base IMO to just make him a common thug. The way that he acted around Kalinda (smearing the eggs on her) was just really gross and I could never work out what she was supposed to see in him, clearly the show wanted you to believe that there was some kind of pull there, but they didn't show it effectively at all, if anything Kalinda came across as pretty distant around him and the actress never convinced me that Kalinda was genuinely drawn to him. The way that Nick was portrayed was so slimy that he just made my skin crawl in most of his scenes, nothing against the actor, but he was seriously miscast if they were going for a charismatic feel with his scenes?

Honestly I still don't really get why Kalinda is such a fan favourite, her plots always seem so soap operish and ridiculous to me in comparison to the rest of the show being a more or less serious political and legal drama, then cut to Kalinda and her husband having cheesily choreographed fights together. It feels like she's a really Noir character and totally out of pace with the rest of the show? I'm also starting to get sick of her seeming to be all about money and constantly wanting another salary bump, even when she already makes six figures. I appreciate that she does help L&G win most of their cases and she deserves to make plenty, but I shared Will's incredibility when he pointed out that she had just asked for and received a raise, and there she was asking for another one in the same season. She always seems to act so hard done-by whenever she finds out about another investigator being hired, or finding out about Robin having health insurance, but then Will has always met her every salary ask and never even hinted at threatening to replace her, so I'm not sure why she consistently seems to feel so undervalued? And lol it kind of annoyed me how she played off Cary and Will's offers against one another as a business decision, but then acted so insulted and told Cary to go to hell after finding out that he approached Robin to work for his firm, even though that was only because they were just starting out and couldn't meet Kalinda's demands. Is that really all that different from Kalinda running to Will to use Cary's offer as leverage and see if Will would match it? Cary came across as really wanting Kalinda to come with his new firm, but simply finding himself unable to meet what she was asking, whereas Kalinda refused to bend on anything and just seemed to have money as her primary motivator

And the progression of Alicia and Kalinda's friendship seems to be moving rather glacially, in the hotel room scene from 411 for example it felt like the purpose of the scene was to show that they were on slightly better terms, but Alicia seemed more icy and distant with Kalinda then the scene was going for? I was expecting more progression after Alicia was willing to drink with Kalinda again in the third season finale, but then the second half of season 4 seemed to pretty much drop that thread

Oh and my final comment is that I did wonder if there were budget issues this season, it seemed like a lot of the usual recurring characters (Jackie, the kids, Owen) appeared far less than they did in previous seasons?

Comments

[lovepollution.livejournal.com]

IA re. Kalinda's husband. I remember reading that the writers also realised they'd made a mistake, hence why he disappeared pretty quick in the second half of the season and it was sort of like he'd never been there. I do really appreciate that with TGW writers, they tend to listen to fan reaction and if something is really wrong, they'll try and fix it.

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

I did wonder why he disappeared so abruptly, that explains that then! He was still around for most of the first half of the season though, I think up until episode 11 or 12, so I wonder what their original plan for him was then if that was supposed to be an even longer arc? It was also strange how he arranged for Cary to be beaten up quite badly at the end of one episode, but then Kalinda never found out about it and there was barely any follow-up or consequences to that, there seemed to be a lot of dropped threads and I was never sure what they were going for

[sakuracorr.livejournal.com]

Well Kalinda will be gone after this current season because Archie has decided to leave the show. I think her character has been mostly poorly handled, but fans love her because she's a kickass bisexual (mostly).

[frelling-tralk.livejournal.com]

I'm kind of torn on Kalinda, mostly she comes across to me as such a kickass character who can ~mysteriously~ get things done that I find it hard to get very attached to her as a person. I've felt the warment towards her in her scenes with Will, that friendship really works for me, and also when she broke down in the elevator after Alicia confronted her about sleeping with Peter. I would like to have more of those moments with her, but it comes across like the writers are afraid to have her let go and be vunerable in case that upsets the mystique of her character, so it's always got to be about showing how cool and badass Kalinda is, instead of really getting to know her as a person. Hence the abusive ex storyline feeling so off to me because we never really got her or anything about her past with Nick, it was yet again more about upholding the image of the character and showing how smoothly she could handle herself against him, so those plots focusing on Kalinda always seem so overdone IMO. She just never feels like a character that I can believe in, so much as being some super-cool representation of the writers. But then she obviously does work for the majority of the audience :shrugs: